


what's your favorite scary movie?

by queenC_13



Series: its you, its me, its us [2]
Category: Dead To Me (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Halloween, Romance, headcanons of who would be afraid at horror movies came up, this was mine, vague mentions of the horror movies they're watching but nothing explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27284557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenC_13/pseuds/queenC_13
Summary: “Jen, are you telling me that you’ve never, in all of your wise 47 years, watched a scary movie?”Jen snorts. “Not if I could help it.”5 + 1 of horror movies for halloween
Relationships: Judy Hale/Jen Harding
Series: its you, its me, its us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992274
Comments: 20
Kudos: 69





	what's your favorite scary movie?

**Author's Note:**

> as you can see this is part of a 'series' with my sad judy story, although you don't have to read that to read this—i just briefly mention judy's past in this and i'm taking it from my own previously written backstory of hers
> 
> this story is much lighter than that one, but if you haven't read that one yet... you could :)
> 
> (i didn't put the titles for all the movies in this cause i just wanted it to flow, but see if you can guess?)

**-5**

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Jen mutters, blanket pulled up so high on her face she can barely see the screen.

“It’s October, Jen! We can’t let the month pass us by without some scary movies!”

“Uh, I’m pretty fucking sure we can, Jude. I’ve done just fine the last 47 years without them.”

She feels a cold nose poke against her cheek as Judy scoots closer and bumps her face. “Jen, are you telling me that you’ve never, in all of your wise 47 years, watched a scary movie?”

Jen snorts. “Not if I could help it.”

“Are you scared?” Judy breathes into her ear, making her shiver.

“I just don’t like them, okay?” Jen narrows her eyes and turns her face, feeling almost cross eyed as she looks at Judy so close. 

Judy starts pushing on Jen lightly until she’s laying down on the couch and Judy makes herself comfortable on Jen’s chest, face nuzzled into her neck. “Don’t you know that I’ll protect you?” Judy continues the conversation normally, as if there aren’t sirens and crawling skeletons and some fucking pyramid-headed demon on the screen.

“I don’t need protection,” she says, a bit petulantly. “I just don’t get why this woman would walk right into an abandoned town where fucking demons are showing up as soon as the sun goes down. Why didn’t she just leave?”

“ _Jen_ ,” Judy says, pushing herself up so she can look at the other woman. “Her daughter went into the town, she has to find her!”

“Maybe she shouldn’t have been driving to this abandoned place with her daughter in the first place. She’s having nightmares every night? Go to therapy.”

Judy rolls her eyes at that (picked up from Jen, and definitely _not_ adorable every time she does it) and lays back down. The two keep watching, with Jen flinching at every little movement while she can feel how relaxed Judy is on her chest.

How can she be so calm? This movie is fucking horrible. 

Jen thinks she manages to keep it together until the end, but then she’s pretty much done.

“Are you kidding me? This woman is just letting a child kill everyone?”

“She’s a ghost, Jen. Her spirit has been trapped in the town because they burned her alive, it’s not her fault! She was just an innocent little girl. I think it’s so sad.”

Jen rolls to her side so that her and Judy are facing one another, cramped on the couch. “Sure Judy, it’s sad. But I don’t think I need to watch it ever again, or any others for that matter, got it?”

Judy smiles, completely undeterred. 

“Don’t worry Jen, I’ll find one that you like.”

* * *

**-4**

This time they’re watching in bed, curled up together as they watch. Jen would much rather be watching Facts of Life right now.

(Or doing other, much more enjoyable activities.)

“This girl is so dumb. They tell her not to hang out with the neighbor boy and what does she do? Fucking goes right to his house alone. I swear Charlie better not be doing anything that stupid.”

Judy snorts, “I think we’re fine, Jen. We live in an upper middle class suburb nowhere near the wilderness.”

“Still—the mom should have realized when the house was so cheap. And what kind of realtor doesn’t tell the full story? He should lose his license.”

“It’s a _movie_ , Jen. I don’t think they’re worried about the realism of the realtor’s job here.”

Jen can feel the pout on her face but she can’t bring herself to care right now—anything to distract her is better than having to watch this.

This one isn’t as bad as the last movie, but she definitely won’t be forgiving Judy for laughing at the jump scare that got her. Thank God the boys didn’t hear her yell. 

“Did you like this one better?” Judy asks eagerly as the credits eventually start to roll.

“You can’t possibly be asking me that. He fucking murdered his entire family and then murdered who knows how many innocent girls—just because he’s lonely? That’s so fucked up.”

“Jen you missed the whole point! He felt responsible for his sister’s death when they were children, and then his parents abused him for _years_ making him pretend to be his sister instead of getting to be himself and develop normally. There’s so much to psychologically unpack there, it’s not as simple as him just killing people!”

Jen half heartedly listens to Judy’s rant before finally just shutting her up with a kiss. 

Hopefully Judy will be too distracted to continue her mission.

* * *

**-3**

“I swear Jen, this one is a love story.”

“Jude, this is literally saying that it’s based on a real case that happened in England. How is this supposed to be a love story?”

Judy screws up her face a bit (which definitely doesn’t just make Jen want to kiss her) and holds her hands out like she’s addressing a jury to make her point, rather than just Jen. 

(As if Jen doesn’t always do everything Judy wants; as if she doesn’t keep putting herself through these fucking movies for Judy even though she hates them.)

“It’s about a family—how they can persevere by using the strength of one another to lean on and how all you need is that one single person to believe in you.”

She gives Jen a meaningful look and Jen fights the urge to roll her eyes. Damn Judy and her constant belief in Jen. 

Jen huffs and settles further into the blanket over her lap, unsubtly moving closer to Judy as she does so. This is their third movie so she knows she isn’t fooling Judy, but she tries to make it at least a quarter into the movie before she has to clutch the other woman for dear life. 

She doesn’t make it 10 minutes.

“What kind of child makes a homemade Ouija board? And _then_ play with it in the house?”

“Why do children always follow noises? Why don’t they ever call for someone else?”

“I swear to God if one of our children was possessed I would leave you to deal with it.”

“At least this mother makes me feel better about my own lack of parenting skills.” (That one earns her a pinch from Judy.)

She watches most of it basically cowered into Judy’s neck, flinching every time there’s a jump scare and pointedly ignoring the speech about how one person can change everything and how you just have to open up to them.

And she _definitely_ doesn’t tear up when ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ starts playing at the end.

She still hates scary movies.

(But she is glad that Judy changed everything for her too.)

* * *

**-2**

“Okay this one is more psychological than scary,” Judy says as she settles next to Jen on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. “So you shouldn’t have to hide the whole time.”

Charlie snorts from his position in the armchair next to the couch. “Yeah Mom, no need to hide behind Judy the whole time.”

“It’s okay Mommy, this one really isn’t scary.” Henry pipes up from her other side.

“Tell me why we’re watching this as a family?” Jen bites out, before looking down at Henry. “And how the hell have you seen this before?”

“I watched it at Shandy’s house,” he says simply. 

Jen looks to Judy with raised eyebrows and mutters, “Should we be monitoring what they’re doing at Shandy’s house?”

“She already killed his bird, Jen, I think a movie is fine,” Judy whispers back, before pressing play. 

The beginning is intense, but Judy was right for once; it’s not so much of a horror as a “study of grief” as Jen thinks Judy herself might describe it, given the chance.

(And probably will during her post-movie speech.)

Instead of feeling scared of the ghosts, Jen feels bad for them. She can feel her fists clench at the mother who kills her daughter, feels vindication when it gets exposed. She can’t take her eyes away from the screen, engrossed in the therapy the little boy is getting, but also the way he’s clearly helping his therapist in return.

And when she cries at the little boy talking to his mom about his grandma and how his grandma says she’s proud everyday—well, the rest of the family blissfully ignores it, with Judy just pulling Jen even closer, intertwining their hands and pressing a kiss to Jen’s palm while Henry lays his head on her lap.

And the ending? Yeah, she definitely never saw _that_ coming.

Jen agrees that it’s not much of a horror movie, but she still doesn’t think they need to watch anymore.

* * *

**-1**

Of course, Judy thinks they have to watch more, and is determined to find another one that Jen doesn’t hate. 

“I can’t believe you haven’t even seen any Tim Burton movies, Jen, they’re classic!”

“I’ve seen some classic movies—they’re all shit.”

Judy pokes her in the side before settling down next to her. It’s not too cold outside yet, so they decided to use the outdoor living room for this one, a small fire in the outdoor fire pit providing the extra bit of warmth they need.

(As if they don’t always curl up as close as possible, sharing each other’s warmth anyway.)

As always, they start the movie in silence before Jen lets the complaints run out of her mouth.

“So basically this is Frankenstein?”

“Is she crazy? Why would she take him home, he could kill her whole family! She doesn’t know him!”

“Jesus Christ, why would you give him a water bed? He has _scissors_ for _hands_!”

Usually during movies Judy chimes in as well, fighting back on Jen’s commentary and trying to make points about why it isn’t scary and why Jen needs to feel bad for the villain and every other character in the movie.

This time, however, she stays mostly silent, eyes enraptured on the movie with only a few comments here and there.

“He just wants to have a family.”

“The score is so beautiful Jen, don’t you think?”

“This is my favorite part, he loves her so much.”

And then at the end, when the snow is falling back into the town, Jen notices the tears filling Judy’s eyes. She’s felt something building as they’ve watched their movies, as Judy’s gotten almost manic about finding movies that Jen will like. 

(As if Jen wouldn’t always watch any movie Judy asked her to, even if she doesn’t like it.)

“Why do you love these movies so much anyway?” Jen speaks up after the credits have been rolling for a few minutes, the music playing softly in the background.

Judy looks down at her lap, folding the blanket under her fingers and flexing her hand in and out of a fist in a nervous tic. Finally she looks up at Jen, her voice soft. “My mom always had me watch scary movies with her when I was little. It probably wasn’t appropriate, I know, but I never found them scary. I guess it’s kind of hard when real life is worse than the movies.” She lets out a humorless laugh.

“Oh Judy,” Jen breathes out, trying to somehow move even closer to the other woman even though their bodies are already pressed together with no room in between. 

“It was when I was really little, before we moved into our trailer and didn’t have a TV anymore. Then after we were living in the car we were in the hotel for a bit and then… well—I started watching them again at some foster homes, then when I was on my own. It’s just always been something consistent for me, I guess.”

Jen presses a kiss to the top of Judy’s head and feels a light kiss against her neck in response, making her smile. They’ve gotten so much better with communication since everything that happened, but Jen knows that it can still be hard for Judy to open up about things from her past. She puts her finger under Judy’s chin and lightly draws her face up so she can place a kiss on her lips—it’s soft, slow, not leading anywhere, but just to say ‘I’m here, I love you.’ She can feel Judy smile slightly in response, knows that she understands.

“Well,” Jen finally says. “We can’t watch these _all_ the time. But I guess sometimes around Halloween it would be okay.”

When Judy lets out a peal of laughter and kisses her again, Jen knows she would watch them all the time anyway, just to keep hearing that sound.

* * *

**+1**

“Happy Halloween!” A pair of hands cover Jen’s eyes as she steps into the kitchen when she gets home from work and she feels a kiss to her cheek (followed by a “gross” somewhere to her left), making her smile.

“Do I get to see what you’re hiding from me?” Jen asks, knowing Judy has absolutely done something to celebrate the holiday. 

“Not yet.” Jen can hear the cheeky smile in Judy’s voice and rolls her eyes behind closed lids. “I’m going to walk you to the stairs, then you’re going to go upstairs and change into the costume I left on our bed. We should be ready by the time you get back down.”

“ _Judy_.”

“It’s going to be fun! No horror involved,” Judy says as they stumble towards the steps. “Now hurry up, the boys are hungry. And no peeking when I take my hands away.” Her hands leave Jen’s face and swat her ass lightly, making Jen roll her eyes again as she does what she’s told and hurries up the steps towards their room, groaning at the purple dress she sees laid out on the bed, the purple go-go boots on the floor below it. 

She debates just going back downstairs without putting it on, but then thinks of what Judy told her, and thinks of how much Judy loves Halloween.

(Jen thinks that she also probably always loved the idea of getting to be someone else for a day—someone with a different life. She feels her heart break for that young version of Judy all over again, and knows she’s going to put on the fucking costume.)

When she finally makes her way downstairs she sees the fake cobwebs hanging from the archway into the living room; some plastic cauldron looking bowls on the coffee table with various orange and black foods around.

“Jinkies, you sure do look amazing,” she feels breathed into her ear, making her shudder beyond her will, despite the words that are said. She looks to her right and sees Judy dressed in a somehow still flattering bright orange turtleneck and skirt, complete with the knee high socks and fake glasses. “You like?” Judy asks, doing a dorky little twirl that absolutely does _not_ make Jen’s heart flutter.

(She can’t let Judy know she’s enjoying these ridiculous costumes.)

(Judy definitely knows she is anyway—definitely sees Jen looking at her legs in the skirt.)

“Mom, Mom, do you like my costume!” Henry runs up to her then with a white crew neck pulled over a blue collared shirt, an orange ascot tied perfectly around his neck. Charlie ambles in behind him in a pair of brown pants and a green t-shirt, clearly having angled for the simplest costume—and probably tried to get weed from Judy as a result of the costume as well.

“You look very handsome, Boop,” Jen says, squeezing his shoulder. “You too Char,” she winks at the fake scowl he gives her in return. 

(He’s been so much better lately, now that they’re all doing the whole honesty thing. Half the time they don’t even need to ask him to join family time—he’ll do it all on his own, even sometimes letting Jen hug him before bed.)

Jen catches sight of them all in the mirror in the foyer, annoyed that they really do look cute.

“Happy Halloween, Judy,” she finally says, turning back to the woman beside her. “It all looks great. What can I do to help?”

“Enjoy the movie?” Judy asks, her teasing grin carrying a touch of real hope behind it. 

They all make their way into the living room where Scooby Doo is already queued up to play and they settle into their usual spots, Judy leaning on Jen’s shoulder this time. Charlie presses play and as Jen sits there, surrounded by her family, she thinks that she could do this every year, as long as the month-long assault of scary movies ends like this.

She kisses the top of Judy’s head and then looks back to the screen, settling in to watch.

“Hey Jude, has anyone ever told you that you really look like Velma?”

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween hope you enjoyed xxx


End file.
